Influence of a mixing solvent with tetrahydrofuran and N,N-dimethylformamide on electrospun poly(vinyl chloride) nonwoven mats

We evaluated the effects of the solvent composition with respect to the solution concentration, applied electric field, and tip-to-collector distance on the morphology of electrospun poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) fibers. The solvent volume ratio was strongly correlated with the diameter of the electrospun fibers with respect to the other processing parameters. Electrospun PVC fibers dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (THF) had diameters ranging from 500 nm to 6 mum; those dissolved in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) had an average diameter of 200 nm. The diameters of the electrospun fibers were obtained from narrow to broad distributions with the solvent composition. Also, the diameters of fibers electrospun from a mixed solvent of THF and DMF were less than 1 mum. The mechanical properties of electrospun PVC nonwoven mats depended on the fiber orientation and linear velocity of the drum surface. With increasing linear velocity of the drum surface, electrospun PVC fibers were arranged toward the machine direction, and the dimensions of the spiral path were shorter. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.